Pilings

[kenny]

Steve,
Phil Douglas a local home builder, that built his lot and great new house at the turn in the main canal by the bird sanctuary, went with all round pilings that were coated with a dark green material that I'm guessing might be epoxy/copper. I'd check with him because he knows what he's doing.

[GGF]

Steve,
Phil Douglas a local home builder, that built his lot and great new house at the turn in the main canal by the bird sanctuary, went with all round pilings that were coated with a dark green material that I'm guessing might be epoxy/copper. I'd check with him because he knows what he's doing.

Thanks. I've noticed that house and it looks great. I'm going to ask about round pilings.

[Gater]

Kenny

Steve,
Phil Douglas a local home builder, that built his lot and great new house at the turn in the main canal by the bird sanctuary, went with all round pilings that were coated with a dark green material that I'm guessing might be epoxy/copper. I'd check with him because he knows what he's doing.

Thats the 21poly coating I mentioned, it's like a thick spray-on bedliner material. It in my opinion is the only way to go on new pilings. I would steer clear of round pilings. I have had issues with them bolting stingers to them. It wants to woble because it does not have the surface area that the square ones do. Gater

[Swells]

I'll tell ya one thing I learned after our little hurricane Dolly, was that most people set their beams and decking too low, and in high rough water the boards all floated off, sometimes in whole sections. Do yourself a favor and go a little higher than existing. Well it did flood plus-4 and blew 120, so we lost 187 docks here on SPI.

Another trick is to find some really good wood. They were tearing down an old lumber yard and come to find out, the dry storage area was barn-built with Louisiana Swamp Cypress. Now that old wood will never rot, and a 2 by 12 was a full 2 by 12 inches! Most of the wood these days is very soft SPF (spruce, pine, or fir) that is cut wet and just can't handle the elements very good.

Some folks got tired of rotten pilings and went with concrete poured in PVC, or pre-cast 12-inch square piers. They last pretty much forever if you use the right concrete/cement mix and rebar. To me, too hard to drill for bolts, or locate holes in the right place ahead of time, but it's an option.

For us, we only used a marine construction company for setting poles, piers, or bulkheading, since they have a crane barge usually. Then we'd get a couple of 12-packs on ice and some BBQ and get-r-done with some good ole boys. Get or rent a laser level or transit and use a "story pole" to mark the elevation you want, which is usually the top of some heavy-duty cross beams that are bolted (the narrow part of dock, not the long side). Don't be afraid to use lots of mason's string-line to be sure you're level & square.

Your 2 by 12 joists go on top of that and I like to tie them together real good with SS nails and maybe bronze deck screws. The dock boards are easy and again I like deck screws, just S/S nails for tacking down. Extra points if you design your dock so your boat won't get stuck under it on a rising tide from dead low. Good luck and have fun.
sam

[coachlaw]

Shooooot. If anyone has a line on cypress wood for cheap, y'all let me know for sure. The good Lord knew what he was doing when he came up with that. Too bad we over-harvested it so badly.

[Swells]

Shooooot. If anyone has a line on cypress wood for cheap, y'all let me know for sure. The good Lord knew what he was doing when he came up with that. Too bad we over-harvested it so badly.

A bunch of bald (swamp) cypress ended up in Texas in the time between the turn of the century and WWII ... you're right it's right rare these days. Here ya go! One of that size can be several hundred years old.